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rology at Stanford, explained that
turning on the parasympathetic
nervous system (also known as
the “relax and renew” system) is
essential for arousal — but when
we’re stressed, we’re operating
from the sympathetic nervous
system (“fight or flight”).
“You have trouble having an erection in the first place because you
can’t establish that parasympathetic
tone,” said Sapolsky in a 2012 talk
for the Science of a Meaningful Life
series. “[Or] you manage to have an
erection ... and you accelerate the
transition from parasympathetic to
sympathetic, and the whole thing
goes too quickly.”
6. LOWER SPERM COUNT
Stress and anxiety could play a
large role in male fertility, according to new research. Recent studies conducted in Italy, as reported
by Reuters Health, found that
men who were stressed ejaculated
less and had a lower sperm count
and concentration than those who
were not under stress. Stress was
also positively correlated with deformed and less mobile sperm.
7. SOCIAL WITHDRAWAL
The stereotype of the “strong and
silent type” may actually be a pic-
STRESS
LESS
ture of the male stress response.
A 2010 University of Southern
California study found that men
who are stressed out exhibit less
activity in the brain regions associated with understanding others’
feelings. When placed under acute
stress, the men had less of a brain
response to facial expressions,
especially fear and anger, whereas
women had greater activity in
these brain regions.
“These are the first findings to
indicate that sex differences in the
effects of stress on social behavior
extend to one of the most basic
social transactions — processing someone else’s facial expression,” Mara Mather, director of
the Emotion and Cognition Lab at
USC, said in a press release. “Under stress, men tend to withdraw
socially while women seek
emotional support.”
HUFFINGTON
08.11.13